Safety is nothing to make light of. But light can certainly enhance vehicle safety, as demonstrated by the 2019-20 Ram 1500.
FCA recently refined the performance of the redesigned pickup’s available, curve-adaptive, LED projector headlamps with high-beam assist. The result?
The reigning Motor Trend Truck of the Year made history as the first full-size pickup to capture a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Specifically, the rating applies to models built after May of this year that feature the refined headlamp system and Ram’s Automatic Emergency Braking technology, Forward Collision Warning-Plus.
But the road to Ram’s success runs through an elite test site in a corner of Canada known as that country’s automotive nucleus – the Lighting Research Facility at the Advanced Research and Development Centre in Windsor, Ontario.
“The Lighting Research Facility features an exceptional working dynamic,” says Antonio Mancina, FCA Head of Canada Engineering. “And the results we are able to achieve resonate where they matter – on the road, for the benefit of our customers.”
Jointly operated by FCA and the University of Windsor, the facility leverages the combined energy and insights of students, professors and engineers as they work together on research initiatives. At more than 25,000 square feet, it is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.
Such scale is appropriate because redesigning FCA’s best-selling vehicle, the Ram 1500, was no minor responsibility. The truck’s lighting technology profited from the site’s controlled laboratory environment that simulates a two-lane roadway, including roadside markings and reflectors.
It also houses advanced light-measurement equipment to accommodate optimal accuracy when compiling quantitative lighting assessments.
Such resources signal lights out for the Ram 1500’s competitors.
